Friday, September 22, 2017

BWCA 2017

Make up of paddling crew (stated relative to my position in family): father, father-in-law, brother, son, two nephews, first cousin. Three generations for second year in a row now. This BWCA week has changed over the years: some good friends and paddlers are no longer attending; we've started to explore a couple more lakes (two that are not the "main" lake since 2011), and we now have the youth along to remind us of the goodness that is discovery and growth. Son got to be in camp with both of his grandfathers. Last couple years we've gone to a lake that is pretty silly with aggressive fish in easy settings; generally speaking kids prefer this to walleye lakes and/or lakes with high ratio of work to fish caught.

Our paddle-in date was August 27th; paddle out was September 3rd. Per the school calendar, we are now going earlier than historical average (which was more like Sept 7-14). We noted that this year the water felt a little warm; need some data to examine but that was the feeling. Supporting this suggestion was fact that fishing was down just a shade from last year's.

I fished with my son for the first day and a half; he then pronounced that he wanted to fish with his cousin, which I thought was cool. They were allowed to man their own canoe provided they kept life vests on at all times. Also sunglasses (my belief is that many injuries can be addressed in the wild, but not eye injuries; no interest in dealing with hooks in eyes so I see glasses as an absolute must).

Even with fishing "down" a bit it was very good overall. The number of bass in the 15-18 inch range was notable. Some larger SMB were boated, including three 20s. Some big LMB too. Many northerns, most of which were probably 20-24 inch small specimens. More detail best conveyed via captions below.

Tradition has always been up at 4 AM; leave 500 or 530 AM.

Stumbled into his first "owned" paddle; it was used, for sale at outfitter (we check in there re permit).

If the fishing would have been ridiculous, I would have realized a plan to have the kid try fly rod poppers. But it was short of ridiculous and as noted he was with his cousin most of the time, so we left it to the spinning gear.

First night out got a couple nice bass. Next day, he actually got seven SMB on surface plugs. So it felt good to start; from there though, it tapered a bit to something more like 2-3 good bass per day (fishing couple hours in each of morning and evening) with pike mixed in all along.

One of kid's fish. I helped land a good number of them. Didn't notice that reflection at the time but I like it.

They don't run but they are strong; they bull. Also note the spartan canoe. Don't like too much gear jumbling things up.

Well built, typical fish on the bigger end of the size distribution we observed.

Kid's best lure was the skitter pop.

Working on camp meat.

Plague of these smaller pike. If I had regular access to them I would kill an abundance and become an expert pickler of the solid white fish flesh.

Kids set up a chair that we had along courtesy of Winona Fly Factory. Bring in the folded material and the cord; find the required wood frame onsite.

I fished a lot more than I did last year. Overall it was a fair showing via poppers and clousers. There were enough fish that I generally stuck to poppers because it's more fun. More anticipation and visual reward. This double-barrel popper was tied by FlyFeesh; thanks man. It crossed out of the Miss watershed to where rivers run north. Still worked.

Can't take good fish pics in a canoe while on the water. But we taped this pike at 37 inches. That puts weight around 14 lbs, which felt about right. Dad and cousin each got fish in the 31-34 inch range too. This one was early morning in a shallow weedy bay. It ate a deer hair bass popper tied on a light wire hook. I watched its head come up underneath the fly; very shark/monster like image. Not particularly violent, just a rising up of large head; pushing up right through the fly. My compromise on the leaders is to use a length of heavy mono at the terminus when fishing bass poppers. That way you don't kill the action with steel, but you get a fighting chance should a pike eat. It worked well in this case. I'd say the 17 lb mono was 30-40% frayed after fish was landed. I will note that subsequently two northerns did cut right through the 17 lb. So still plenty of risk. But a decent compromise.

Pike and musky are terrible C&R fish. In my opinion. They exhaust easily and are difficult to handle; fragile heads and mouths. This one wasn't beat to hell by treble hooks; just that single light wire that came out easily. But it still required ten minutes of attention to revive and right itself in the world. In the end it swam away with notable vigor. We came back in a couple hours and didn't find any white belly floating the surface. My feeling is that she lives on now.

Shortly after releasing the pike, the same popper lit into a couple nice SMB. That fly is still up there; taken by a northern on the second to last day; came completely out of the water, horizontal, and claimed it. Pretty cool.

The built chair. It can be adjusted to allow various shoulder fits.

Guys in camp.

Camp Director with SMB. We fished together a lot. We didn't take too many fish pics. I don't have photos of other campers because I didn't paddle with them. I think that others do have some sweet pics out there somewhere.

Right at sundown. One of the few clouser eats.

Brought just one fly box this year; it was more than enough. Poppers and clousers mainly; all proven.

Mouse popper. Back to back big SMB and LMB. We taped this LMB at 18".

Camp meat. We kept a lot of northerns and small SMB (12-14 inches). When gear guys aren't catching walleyes, this is the deal.

Years of working on footwear approach. Sounds funny but IMO footwear more important than clothing details. I like neoprene socks paired with sandals or boots that can fit over. This allows use of sandals or boots when paddling in and portaging. Then add the socks when fishing to keep flies off your ankles. Then in camp just use a pair of your dumpiest old tennis shoes as "camp slippers" meaning slippers for walking around camp; full coverage to keep bugs off and protect toes from stubbing on rocks. May change but I am pretty happy with this approach.

Live trapping chipmunks. All released unharmed.

One walleye caught. Kids trolling in at end of evening session. His choice (challenged by some) was to release the fish. Our policy at home has always been that adults can give advice on the matter but fish caught by a kid can be kept or released as seen fit by kid. I took another photo with the flash but I like the gray and blues and obscurity of this photo better. The sternsman looking on.

Mid-days we just hung out. Reading, talking, etc. Important part of camp.

One day we got some rain. One day we were windbound into the late afternoon. Not bad at all.

Didn't target pike much with fly rod; got a number on poppers while bass fishing. But this one ate the big streamer while kid and I trolled across a bay; mainly just blowing in the wind with lines out.

Thanks for a great paddling group and another solid chapter in BWCA. Work of Camp Director is much appreciated; also grateful for the fleet of canoes assembled by cousin.

What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left,
O let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.

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